Who's Afraid of Michael Bloomberg?

The crew at the National Review Online, apparently; they've spent the past week taking shots at hizzoner over the city's handling of the blizzard. Charlotte Hays (hat tip: Conor) led off with this adolescent effort arguing that the Boxing Day blizzard was "definitely a force for conservatism" because it showed that the "nanny state" can't take care of the populace. Jonah G. has weighed in twice, most recently yesterday to sneer at Bloomberg's mea culpa. A bit obliquely but still in the same vein, Mark Krikorian also managed to turn a Boston blizzard story into an attack on "leftist busybodies" who steal privately shoveled parking spaces. (As a former resident of Boston — well, Somerville — let me assure you, Mark, that hatred of the law in question crosses all ideological boundaries, and that, at a minimum, verbal violence is instantly visited upon any dumb son of a bitch who attempts to claim or enforce its protections.)

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The reason for all this sniping at Bloomberg is plain: The NRO and the ideological territory it dominates are threatened by a popular, centrist-libertarian Republican with immeasurably deep pockets, impeccable business bona fides, a record of tough action on his government's budget, and at least the potential to capture votes that otherwise would go to a more traditionally "conservative" candidate for president in 2012. Never mind that Bloomberg himself has insisted repeatedly and unambiguously that he will not run: the mere thought of a run sets the NRO atremor and demands its patented panicked overreaction.

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I will concede this: If Bloomberg decides, in lieu of running in 2012, that he'll fund like-minded proxy candidates for national and high state offices, the tremors may be justified. Because the sole reason NRO has an opening to attack the mayor on his mishandling of this current crisis is that it's a complete anomaly. This city has thrived under Bloomberg — through the post-9/11 doldrums, through nearly a dozen thwarted terrorist attacks since, through the failure and near-failure of many of its economic engines, through a transit strike, through an outbreak of dangerous H1N1 influenza in the public schools ... and, by my memory, through at least three* other snowstorms that rivaled this latest one in scale. And it has done so because its administration and municipal agencies are generally well-run, responsive, flexible, prudent, and anticipatory. New York remains the entrepreneurial capital of the country, if not the world; here, private enterprise is king. But when that enterprise fails, or fails to address large public problems, or when a crisis hits, there is the mayor. And by common consent he's done a heckuva job.

Good government works: that is the message of this Republican administration. No wonder the cynical supporters of terrible Republican governance are scared.